Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo My new m60's: thoughts and review.......

In reply to:

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Layla...sounded as if I was listening to it while wearing my motorcycle helmet. What were they thinking?...this seems to be a common complaint about...even the SACD...

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I've got the Layla SACD and I agree. Great artistically, Clapton is a genius, but one of the worst mixing jobs I've ever heard.

But you can't "get blood out of a turnip" as they say. If the original tapes were poor quality no amount of digital remastering and remixing can fix that.

I just don't understand it. Some early 70s material (e.g. Dark Side of the Moon) were obviously recorded with primitive equipement by today's standards, yet they are technically magnificant on stereo CD, and even better in multichannel SACD.

One of the most mysterious differences is between the two Elton John Albums "Don't Shoot Me", and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". Both recorded by the same artist, the same band, using the same producer, at the same studio, and within 1 yr of each other. Despite great songs, Don't Shoot Me is acoustically flat and muddy. By contrast Yellow Brick Road (esp on SACD) IMO rivals Dark Side of the Moon in pure acoustic engineering. The sound is 3 dimensional, vivid, spectacular.

No question with Axiom speakers the bad sounds worse and the good sounds better. Too bad there's not more good.

See the thread in this forum titled "Favorite 5-10 SACDs" for some recommendations, both pro and con.

>>I just don't understand it. Some early 70s material (e.g. Dark Side of the Moon) were obviously recorded with primitive equipement by today's standards, yet they are technically magnificant on stereo CD, and even better in multichannel SACD.

Dark Side of the Moon was engineered by Alan Parsons at his most creative. He worked pretty hard at getting the best from the technology, and DSOM was a pretty special affair.

[EDIT] Sounds like there was a sea-change going on in recording technology at the time. DSOM was also one of the first albums recorded with serious attention played to mixing down for quadraphonic distribution :

"The album was made during the summer of 1972, at a time of rapid technological change. It was recorded on 16-track equipment at Abbey Road, with the new Dolby noise reduction system being adopted halfway through the sessions."

Other interesting notes :

http://www.stereosociety.com/body_foursides.html

I'm with bigjohn. I don't use the sub to help the M60s sound better, but to create that "sitting on the drum riser" feel of the kick drum (and bass guitar).

If you happen to have the Styx "Caught in the Act" double CD set, check out the beginning of "Snowblind" with and without the sub and you'll see what I mean. Whoever was running sound at that show gets a big two thumbs up from me on the bass guitar mix. Simply awesome.